Zcash developers are sealing off a shielded pool that carried a critical bug, and a new node built for speed is already backing the fix.
Key Takeaways
Ironwood (NU6.3) seals Zcash’s old Orchard pool at block 3,428,143 on July 28.Taylor Hornby’s May bug find pushed ZEC lower before it stabilized above $500.Sean Bowe and Dev Ojha’s Zakura node syncs Zcash 5 times faster than Zebra.Once Ironwood activates, the legacy Orchard pool stops accepting new deposits or internal transfers. Existing coins in the old pool still work, but only if they move through a new checkpoint called a turnstile on their way to the new Ironwood pool.
The turnstile enforces a simple rule. Outflows from the old pool cannot exceed the coins that legitimately went in. That means the total circulating ZEC supply becomes verifiable the moment Ironwood turns on, without waiting for every user to migrate.
Two outcomes are possible if counterfeit coins existed. If no excess supply tries to leave the old pool, that stands as strong evidence that nothing was exploited. If excess supply does appear, the turnstile blocks it from leaving, and the extra coins get destroyed, giving the public proof of what happened.
Project Tachyon is running formal verification on the new Ironwood circuits, producing machine-checked proofs rather than relying only on manual code review.
What Users Need to Do Zakura Enters the RaceZEC has stabilized above $500 as the July 28 activation approaches, with developers, the Foundation, Shielded Labs, Project Tachyon, and Valar Group aligned around the same upgrade window.
